Laundry day
by insanebluegenius
Summary: What does it mean to be pack? Pack is family. Family means washing the bloodstains out.


Derek missed his family all the time. There wasn't a moment that went by at this point where he didn't feel like something was missing. Being back in Beacon Hills had made it so much more noticeable than when he was in New York.

At least he had something like a pack now. Laura was gone but he had his betas and some human tagalongs. (And Peter was back, but he still wasn't sure how to feel about that.) He was a little less lonely as he attempted to make his pack into something like a family.

The Betas where in the yard sparring with each other as Derek looked on from the sidelines. He was trying to get them to understand that they needed to stop following the same patterns and learn to surprise each other. Stiles was badgering them from the edge of the porch where he and Lydia were attempting to translate more of the Bestiary. Derek didn't stop him, maybe the distraction would help teach Erica a lesson. She was always getting distracted in the middle of fights just like Isaac was always losing his cool mid-fight. At least Boyd was competent and Scott seemed to be halfway there.

Thinking about their fighting styles is what had Derek distracted until he heard a loud crack, a loud gasp from Stiles, and a thud as he finally figured out what had happened. Isaac was sitting on the ground cradling his face and Scott was holding his arm steady and looked like he was trying not to move it.

Erica had gotten lucky and managed to nail Isaac in the face and break his nose. There was blood all down the front of his shirt. Scott had gotten distracted and had his arm broken by Boyd.

Derek moved towards them and Stiles darted off the porch and move ahead of them. He was tugging Scott's shirt up first, exposing a pretty terrible compound fracture. "Ohmigod. Why are all of you always bleeding all over everything?" he said as he wobbled on his feet.

"He'll heal fine." Derek said as steadied Stiles and moved him away so he could realign Scott's arm.

"Oh God, are you gonna-" Stiles got out while Derek snapped Scott's arm back into place. "You did. You really did. ugh." He was covering his face now, "Scott are you okay?"

"I'm fine, Stiles, it's already healing. Isaac are you okay?" Scott asked as Derek kneeled down to pull Isaac's bloody hands away from his face.

"I'm okay. I think." Isaac looked to Derek.

"It's mostly healed already. Not even crooked. You're just a mess, go get cleaned up."

Stiles stayed behind as the rest of the boys moved away into the house, "How is it werewolves always manage to get covered in blood? Are you all just clumsy because you heal? Is this why your clothes are always bloodstained?"

Derek rolled his eyes, "How many clothes do you think I have, Stiles? A lot of them get ripped and I end up trashing them."

"Then shouldn't 'getting blood out of clothing' be a part of Werewolf 101?" Stiles said moving his hands about and making air quotes. Erica barked out a short laugh. "What? Erica why are you giving me that look?"

She grinned, "I'm pretty sure most boys barely have any idea how to do laundry, let alone get stains out."

At this Stiles facepalms, and awkwardly contorts his face. "Yeah let's make this even better and talk about that."

Erica laughs but Derek is curious, "But that actually makes sense. You would be more likely to know how to get blood out of things."

"The secret is peroxide!" Erica's grin suddenly morphs into a real smile. "Now stop trashing your shirts. I've seen how few you have and how often you ruin them."

While everyone is in school the next day, Derek decides to do laundry. Isaac's bloody shirt is still laying in the bathroom where he'd left it after cleaning up and borrowing one the day before. Derek eyes it up along with the blood smears on his own shirt from helping out yesterday.

They have a first aid kit that Stiles insisted on keeping stocked 'just in case'. There should be some peroxide in there.

He finds the peroxide where he thought it would be and takes it with him into the laundry room to see if it helps. It has to work just like other stain remover right? He's surprised when it foams up over the blood on both shirts, but it looks like it might actually work.

He throws everything in the washer and finds a few other shirts with bloody spots on them from other incidents and does the same thing.

Derek's kind of surprised when it actually works and the shirts come out without any bloodstains on them. He'll have to remember this for next time... and maybe get a bigger bottle of peroxide.

The next day he gives Isaac back three shirts that are now clean. Isaac looks at him like it's magic. The boy has seen werewolves and Kanima and other crazy things and it's someone giving him his own cleaned shirt that makes his face light up like a child.

A week later Isaac manages to cut his arm open and fall on Stiles while they run through the preserve one day. Stiles shoves him off annoyed "Aww come on! I love this shirt!" he says glaring at Isaac. There's a smear of blood along the shoulder.

Isaac sighs rolls his eyes and wipes his arm off with his shirt as it finishes healing. "It's fine. Derek can get it out."

Stiles looks at him skeptically and then looks towards Derek. He doesn't know how he's supposed to react to that so he just shrugs. That's how he ends up loaning Stiles a shirt (Isaac has extra shirts in the house) and having more laundry to do.

This becomes a trend. Isaac always looks like he feels bad, but Derek does all the laundry anyway.

Stiles leaves him messed up clothes and tends to grin and call him Momma Wolf if nobody else is around when he gives them back.

Boyd hesitantly hands him a bloody shirt one day after a particularly messy scuffle and asks him if he'd mind, he doesn't want to worry his family.

When Erica realizes that every Tuesday has become laundry day she laughs. Sometimes she throws him something to add to the pile with a grin and a laugh.

Derek suddenly feels a little bad for his mother. He can't imagine how much laundry she had to deal with when she had so many werewolves and such a huge family in one house. He wonders idly if she had any secrets to getting stains out.

That's when he realizes it hurts less than it did before. He has a family again. Now it doesn't hurt as much to think about his old one.

Family is washing the bloodstains out.


End file.
